ESPN Research + Analytics Report Findings from the “Life Cycle of the Sports Fan” Study

Findings Reveal Vastly Different Sports Consumption Habits Based on Age, Gender

Bristol, Conn. – In a presentation on Friday morning at ESPN, Glenn Enoch, vice president, integrated media research, reported findings from a recently completed study that examined the life cycle of the sports fan.  While sports fans represent a large group – roughly 219 million Americans aged 12 plus – the study showed behaviors among those sports fans vary enormously – most notably by age and gender.

"We have done research on sports fans and sports consumption, but now we have put all the pieces together to show how people evolve as sports fans throughout their lives, and how adult sports fans interact with children to start a new cycle," said Enoch.  "In addition, while much attention has been focused on male sports fans, we can now demonstrate the unique phases in the lives of female sports fans."

According to the study, over the course of a lifetime, fan's behaviors and relationship with sports change in a way that reflects their changing priorities.  Sports avidity, content consumption levels, preferred media platforms, time spent viewing, the type of sports programs fans watch, and even the levels of co-viewing continually evolve as fans go through their lives.  Using data from the ESPN Sports Poll, Knowledge Networks and from a variety of media currency measures such as Nielsen and comScore, The Life Cycle of the Sports Fan describes how and why these different patterns occur over time.

By evaluating these behaviors, ESPN Research + Analytics established the following stages of the sports fan life cycle for both male and female sports fans:

• Boys start out watching sports events with an adult.  They don’t watch much sports TV yet (about an hour a week).  Most of their Sports TV viewing is done with others.
• Male teens have the greatest sports avidity.  Participation is a key reason for this.  They spend a lot of time talking about sports (it’s social currency) but not a lot of time watching TV or sports events.  They use programs like SportsCenter (often watching alone) to learn about sports and keep current.
• College-age males remain big sports fans.  They average more than three hours of national sports TV per week, and are at the peak of their sports news and information viewing.  This group is the most likely to watch sports by themselves.  Young men spend the highest percentage of their non-TV sports media time with sports magazines, compared to other groups.
• Males aged 25 to 34 are increasing their sports events viewing (while maintaining their hours of news and information viewing).  They view mostly alone, but also with their families.  These men also spend one-fifth of their sports media time with non-TV platforms.  They are the peak users of Internet video — it makes up a quarter of their Internet sports usage.
• Men aged 35 to 49 have more things to think about (career, family, mortgage) so their sports avidity and sports news/info viewing declines.  Many spend part of the time at work on sites like ESPN.com — they have the highest percent of sports web users.  However, their sports event viewing continues to increase, and they spend time viewing events with their children…
• …and the sports fan life cycle starts again!
• Older men (aged 50 plus) have lower sports avidity but they watch the most sports on TV (over four hours per week).  Viewing is concentrated on events now, with college sports playing an increasing role.  When they co-view, it’s with a woman - ESPN’s audience is almost 30 percent female at this age.  They spend less time with non-TV sports platforms, but they have the highest percentage of non-TV sports minutes going to radio.

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Females show a different pattern:

• Like boys, Girls don’t watch many hours of sports on TV, and mostly watch with adults.
• Female teens don’t show more TV viewing than girls, but they are very big fans of sports, mostly because of sports participation.
• Both sports participation and avidity drop sharply at age 18, and women are at their lowest sports avidity at the ages of 25-34.
• Female sports avidity and viewing begin to grow after age 35.  Most viewing is co-viewing, with adult males or their families.
• At a time of life when the sports avidity of older men is declining and their sports viewing in increasing, women aged 50 plus are becoming bigger sports fans and their viewing is increasing even faster.  These older women account for nearly a third of all sports viewing within their age group.

“Our company mission is to serve sports fans, and our understanding of these fans is continually evolving,” said Enoch.  “We believe that this study will not only help us do a better job of serving fans, but will provide a rich picture of their life stages to advertisers, to rightsholders and to our business partners.”

About ESPN

ESPN, Inc. is the world’s leading multinational, multimedia sports entertainment company featuring a portfolio of over 50 multimedia sports assets. The company is comprised of six domestic television networks (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Classic, ESPNEWS, ESPN Deportes, ESPNU), ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNEWS and ESPNU HD simulcast services, ESPN Regional Television, ESPN International (45 networks, syndication, radio, web sites), ESPN Radio, ESPN.com, ESPN The Magazine, ESPN Enterprises, ESPN PPV, ESPN Zones (sports-themed restaurants), and other growing new businesses including ESPN360.com (Broadband), ESPN Mobile Properties, ESPN on Demand and ESPN Interactive.  Based in Bristol, Ct., ESPN is 80 percent owned by ABC, Inc., which is an indirect subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company.  The Hearst Corporation holds a 20 percent interest in ESPN.

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